Beer slogans of yesteryear

September 23, 2016

For some time now I have been meaning to write a post about beer slogans, but never getting round to it. Today I’ve done a good morning’s work and I have a few spare minutes, and it’s Friday and my thoughts are turning to beer, so now is the time.

It’s a curious fact that in the 1970s and 1980s nearly every brand of beer had its own slogan, and the public were bombarded by them in TV adverts, night after night. Most advertised tasteless brews which were no more than mildly alcoholic fizzy water, and the slogans were usually witless and feeble, yet annoyingly memorable. Here are a few:

A Double Diamond Works Wonders

You’re a Gentleman and a Skolar

(Watney’s) Roll Out the Barrel

(Hofmeister) For Great Lager, Follow the Bear

Seek Out the Lager of Lamot (accompanied by image of armoured knight on horseback setting out on a quest)

It’s What Your Right Arm’s For (eh?)

It’s Tankard that Helps Me Excel – After One You’d do Anything Well (surely an outright lie?)

Harp Stays Sharp to the Bottom of the Glass

This Calls for a Holsten

Stella’s for the Fellers Who Like their Lager Strong

Heineken Refreshes the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach

Carlsberg: Probably the Best Lager in the World.

Only the last two seem to me clever or effective as slogans; perhaps it’s a coincidence that they are also associated with the most drinkable beers out of that list? I’d be interested to know why this fashion of beer-sloganising died out, though. It’s a long time since I’ve heard about Heineken refreshing the parts other beers cannot reach, and there’s no slogan for contemporary mass-produced beers like Cobra, Sapporo, Staropromen or Peroni, as far as I’m aware.

Schlitz used the slogan The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous which was referenced in the song What Made Milwaukee Famous (has made a loser out of me). Which Jerry Lee Lewis and Rod Stewart both released.
Of course Chas n Dave’s Rabbit started life as an advert for Courage Best.

After a bit (byte?) of Googling C & D featured in seven Courage adverts in the 80s including Rabbit, Gertcha and The Sideboard Song. Maybe pre-remote control/ Sky + adverts resonate more. Or beer was more attention grabbing than other products. There were also the Holsten Pils adverts with Griff Rhys Jones spliced into old film clips and, off topic, the Benson and Hedges Cinema ad with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan.